Watch This Breakthrough 3D Printer Lay Out Silver Ink in Midair

Researchers at Harvard have broken a barrier in the practical capabilities of 3D printing, with a system of metallic printing that enables tracing in midair. The silver nanoparticle ink extrudes from a nozzle that uses a focus laser to effectively cauterize the design in real time. What results are wires the width of a human hair, standing in a firm, free-form structure.

The technique comes out of Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the university's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS), the researchers predict shrinking this tech down even further would allow for "flexible electronics, displays, sensors, and electrically small antennas."

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The demo shows off the possibilities for coils and loops, but the researchers emphasize as well that the nozzle can take 90 degree corners. Further, the technique isn't confined to open space: It would allow the direct application of conductive silver lines to various surfaces.